The present invention relates to optical fibers for decoration that can fit on a curved surface and perform as a curved surface illumination.
Optical fibers for decoration, made of a synthetic resin in a rope form, have been contributed to practical use. The optical fibers are intermeshed or woven, and are covered by transparent tubes. A light source is provided at one end, and the diffuse light leaking out from a curved portion of the optical fiber at the intermeshing point, as the injected light reaches the other end, is utilized for the illumination.
However, according to this method, because the optical fibers form a thick rod-like light emitting body, it is necessary to use a large number of the optical fibers set in parallel to decorate a sheet-like part. Also the setting operations are extremely troublesome, and in particular it is impossible to decorate a whole curved surface of a shaped object, and the like.
In Japanese Utility Model No. 63-93523, it is disclosed to provide a sheet-like decorative device using the optical fibers. The optical fiber has a core part with a relatively high reflective index and a cladding part with a refractive index lower than that of the core part. The light injected from one end of the core part is led toward the other end of the core part with repeating the entire reflection at a boundary between the core part and the cladding part. Further, the optical fibers are woven together by mutually intermeshing to create points interrupting the entire reflections in specific parts in a longitudinal direction of the fibers, and the interrupting points form a surface of a light leaking decorative illumination. A semi-transparent diffusing screen layer is closely attached to a backside of the surface of the light leaking decorative part.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, because of intermeshing a plurality of optical fibers P and weaving closely together, the optical fiber P has a very short distance between the crossing points thereof.
For this reason, the meshes become tight, and in addition, the pressing force on the overlapping points is increased and the frictional resistance becomes extremely large. Thus, there is little flexibility in expansion and contraction.
Accordingly, while it is possible to lay the decorative device on a flat surface with a constant width, it is very difficult to cover a curved surface, for example, a complex contour such as an outer surface of a pot and a shaped object like an animal, a plant, a sculpture and a carved statue, a hemisphere or sphere, and a natural object such as a rock and a tree.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide optical fibers that can decorate a surface area, and the setting operation thereof is easy and convenient. The optical fibers can cover even a complex curved surface, for example, a complex contour such as an outer surface of a pot and a shaped object like an animal, a plant, a sculpture and a carved statue, a hemisphere or sphere, and a natural object such as a rock and a tree.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.
The present invention provides optical fibers for decoration. The optical fibers are formed in a band shape constituted by braiding a plurality of optical fibers with a plurality of overlapping points. The overlapping points constitute meshes or cross-links so as to easily expand and contract in a pantograph form when applying a force in a width direction of the band form.
When expanding and contracting in the width direction of the band form, frictional resistance caused by sliding at the overlapping points becomes very small, and the pantograph form constituted by the overlapping points is capable of holding the meshes with a good balance.